All-City Stadium was nearly deserted when Jordon Bowyer released tears of anger and frustration.

“There were lots of broken promises, so many broken promises,” the Denver South High School senior said.

On this Friday night, George Washington blitzed South 49-0. The Denver Prep League’s Class 4A champion dressed 40 players. South had 23 players in uniform, six of whom were freshmen who saw little or no action.

There were around 75 fans scattered in the South stands for the Rebels’ final game, with South’s cheerleaders doing their best to inject spirit into a somber crowd.

“It just seems to me that there is complete apathy, a lack of motivation, and that’s kind of tough to see,” said James Martin, on hand to support his nephew, Derrick Desmond, a junior who transferred to South when Manual was closed earlier this year. “At least these kids that are out there are holding their chins up. I guess there is always hope for next year.”

For Desmond, perhaps, but not for Bowyer or fellow senior John Ellsworth, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound lineman who wants to play college ball.

“It was such a letdown, especially for the few seniors we had,” said Ellsworth, who claims his chances for a scholarship were hurt by South’s autumn of chaos.

Ellsworth’s final prep season was a morass of losses (1-9), poor school support, and battles among coaches and administration. Three different head coaches – Adrian Tyson, Steve Jurich and John Hickey – paced the sideline. It was as if all of the problems that have plagued DPL football for years converged at South High this fall.

The Rebels’ season began with a touch of hope. For one thing, South had moved down from Class 5A to 4A. For another, Tyson was popular with his players. But four games into the season, the head coach was placed on leave for what South High administrators called “personal reasons.” He was officially relieved of his coaching duties earlier this month. Denver Public Schools officials would not comment on the specifics of any personnel issue.

Into the void stepped Jurich, 64, a self-described “old-school coach” who taught and coached in the Denver Public Schools for more than 40 years, including stints at Montbello and West. He lasted two games. By the time he left, his relationship with the school system, and with South athletic director Jamie Lofaro in particular, had become so contentious that the voicemail message on his home phone now concludes: “If you are from Denver Public Schools, hang up and never call me again.”

Problems boiled over as the Rebels prepared for their Oct. 6 homecoming game against Abraham Lincoln. According to Jurich, on the previous Monday four players, whom he declined to name, skipped practice to attend a concert. He decided to bench them for the homecoming game.

“The administration started giving me headaches about it,” Jurich said. “At first it was, ‘Oh, yes, we’ll support you.’ Then the parents of one kid called and asked why I was picking on him. This one player – one of our best and most talented – happened to be black. I said, ‘Hey, I’m not picking on him. There was a Hispanic kid, a white kid and two black kids that skipped. They are all sitting out because they missed practice.”‘

As Friday’s game neared, Jurich said Lofaro turned up the pressure to reverse his decision.

“The administration just kept harassing me, saying, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? Is this what you need to do?”‘ Jurich said. “Then all of a sudden they said they had gotten calls saying, ‘You’re prejudiced and you are just picking on the black kids.’ I asked who made the calls and they said, ‘Well, they are anonymous calls.’ Then I said, ‘Well, then we aren’t having this conversation.”‘

Jurich later allowed his team to have a closed-door meeting about the situation, and the players voted to let the offending players suit up against Lincoln. Jurich refused to play them. South lost, 33-30.

That night, after the game, Jurich said he got a phone call from Lofaro, who demanded he meet with grandparents and parents who were claiming Jurich had made racial slurs to one of the black players he refused to play.

Jurich steadfastly denies he made disparaging remarks, racist or otherwise. He said South’s failure to back him up was the final straw. So he quit.

A number of students and parents, including Bowyer’s mother, Tina Almanza, and John Ellsworth Sr., back up Jurich’s version of events. They say school administrators failed to back him and his desire to instill discipline. However, junior quarterback Johnny Hickey, son of South’s third coach this season, John Hickey, said Jurich rubbed a lot of players the wrong way.

“He had a real negative attitude and a lot of kids didn’t like it,” Hickey said.

Lofaro declined to comment on Jurich’s accusations or on his resignation. She referred all questions to Alejandra Garza, DPS’s director of communications.

“I don’t know what this gentleman said, but we are not going to get involved in this because these are personnel matters,” Garza said.

South High principal Bill Kohut disputes Jurich’s version of events but he, too, would not get into specifics.

“I can tell you that this is certainly the first I have heard from Mr. Jurich that he was not backed up with the disciplinary measures that he wanted to take,” Kohut said.

“He certainly never came to me with anything about that. And to my knowledge, he never went to Ms. Lofaro in that regard. Again, by law I can’t go into it because it’s part of a personnel issue. But I can tell you that not all parts of the truth are there.”

Jurich insists he talked to Lofaro on a daily basis.

For the final four games, John Hickey stepped in, doing his best with fewer and fewer players. “All I can say is that I’m proud of the kids who stuck it out,” he said after the final game.

Shrinking roster

While the school dealt with personnel issues, South’s football team continued to disintegrate. During the summer, more than 100 kids signed up. That number shrunk to about 80 when two-a-day practices began. By the time South got trampled by GW, there were barely enough players left to run a practice.

“We had kids leaving all the time,” said Johnny Hickey. “We never knew who we were going to play with. I mean, we would set up the kickoff team on Monday and it would be totally different by Friday.”

It’s not unusual for attrition to take its toll on DPL teams. But even 0-10 West – the only team South defeated – began with 80 players and finished with 45.

Asked why South lost so many players, Lofaro said: “Some kids didn’t have physicals, some didn’t make grades, grades were a part of it, some kids quit and some were injured. It’s football.”

Kohut said a lack of coaching stability contributed to the exodus. John Ellsworth Jr. cited other reasons.

“The kids just didn’t like the team or the losing; supposedly they had better stuff to do than play football,” he said.

The Rebels’ problems weren’t confined to the scoreboard. According to John Ellsworth Sr., a number of college inquiries sent to his son were not discovered until the final week of the season.

“It’s been an incredibly frustrating experience,” he said. “When Coach Tyson was there, he said he was going to put John on a list for colleges. We were supposedly getting letters from CSU coaches and CU coaches, and the Kansas coach, too. But after Tyson left, we never heard a thing.”

Almanza, one of only about a dozen parents who actively supported South High football, said the program failed in all avenues of communication. Specifically, she said that the players’ statistics were never recorded with any consistency. She said game tapes are still missing, tapes that might help her son get the attention of college recruiters. She also said that players were promised improved equipment through fundraisers, but that the equipment never materialized. And traditional weekly team dinners were discontinued.

“What bothers me the most was the lack of communication between the coaches, administration and us,” Almanza said. “The few parents that wanted to be involved were shut out. We never knew what was going on. Nobody seemed to care.”

What’s next?

Almanza considered transferring her son to another school before his senior season. But Bowyer wanted to stay because he had already spent three years at South and he had faith his senior season would be fruitful. So Almanza paid the $60 athletic fee, shelled out close to $600 for football shoes, other assorted gear and summer football camps. Then, week after week, she saw her son’s pain intensify.

“Somebody needs to take responsibility for what happened,” she said. “We pay taxes, we pay our athletic fees, so the least they can do for us is have a respectable program.”

Asked if he was disturbed by the collapse of South High football, Kohut replied, “Absolutely.”

Asked what will be done, he said: “We are going to have a different philosophy … Maybe start with a new coaching staff. At this point, no decisions have been made.”

Perhaps South can turn its program around, the way first-year coach Ron Woolfork did at East. The former Colorado star said his first priority was “to change the football culture at East.” Woolfork said that of the 102 students who signed up for football, 94 finished. East went 5-5 in Class 5A, losing 35-27 to Pomona in the first round of the playoffs.

So, perhaps there is hope for the South underclassmen. For John Ellsworth Jr., there is only sadness.

“When we first started out, I really had high hopes,” he said. “Then I felt it all drift away.”

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